No one who is serious about his or her relationship with Jesus is happy about the current state of our world. The moral decay with its ‘in your face’ boldness combined with the rumor of wars is more than sufficient to echo the cry of the early church, ‘Maranatha’ (Come quickly, Lord Jesus!)! But the toll the personal attacks are exacting is cause for even greater concern. There is a sense that one can endure, perhaps even hide, when the attacks do not seem to touch the individual believer personally. One may hear of the struggles of other believers and feel indignant but still remain aloof because there is no personal investment. It is a far different story when one begins to feel and believes they are being persecuted because of his or her beliefs. One is supposed to have the right to the free exercise of religion, but sometimes the definition of what is determined to be ‘free exercise’ is different for different religions, particularly for the Christian